On Monday, the United States assumed its seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council – the one the Bush administration had cold-shouldered, then boycotted. The US representative declared in Obamaesque tones, “Make no mistake: The United States will not look the other way in the face of serious human rights abuses.” And on Tuesday, Justice Richard Goldstone and his team submitted the report of their fact-finding mission into violations of international human rights and humanitarian law during Israel’s December-January offensive against Gaza — a report requested by the Council itself. The Goldstone Report could derail the Obama administration’s hopes of a two-state solution. Unless, that is, someone can sink it. An unlikely set of allies may come together to do so: Israel, given the findings against it of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity; the United States, to defend Israel as well as its own plans for the Middle East; Egypt; and the Palestinian Authority. It would be quite hard to sink the Goldstone Report. One reason is the team’s impeccable credentials. Goldstone, a South African Jew with close ties to Israel, served as Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Another member, Hina Jilani, participated in the commission of inquiry on Darfur. Israel and its supporters always complain that no one looks at other countries’ abuses. Well, this team has. Moreover, the Goldstone Report is painstakingly even-handed. It finds evidence of war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity not just against Israel but also against Palestinian armed groups. And it criticizes both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority for human rights violations in their crackdowns on each other’s members. In addition, the Goldstone team provides almost no room for anyone to wriggle out of its recommendations. It requests the Human Rights Council to submit its report to the Security Council, where the United States has a veto, as well as to the U.N. General Assembly, where it does not. It calls on Israel as well as the authorities in Gaza to launch independent and credible investigations into the violations. And to make sure they do, it asks that an independent team of experts be established to review progress. If the process is not credible — as measured against international law standards — then the Gaza situation should be referred to the International Criminal Court at the end of six months. It also upholds universal jurisdiction, calling on other states to undertake criminal investigations in their national courts so as to prevent impunity. The Report politely expresses doubt that Israel will make reparations to the Palestinians of Gaza for the extensive damage inflicted on them and their infrastructure — so it recommends that the General Assembly establish an escrow account into which Israel would pay. The Obama administration could send a strong signal by voting to submit the report to the General Assembly, or even by abstaining. But, despite its fine words on Monday, it is more likely to want to bury it. Otherwise, attention will focus on prosecuting an Israel it’s trying to nudge to the negotiating table. The problem it will face is that Third World countries dominate both the Human Rights Council and General Assembly and they traditionally support Palestinian rights. So it will seek an alliance with Egypt and the Palestinian Authority. If they indicate they do not want the report to go forward, the rest of the Third World would find it hard to go over their heads. But could Egypt and the Palestinian Authority possibly want to stop accountability for war crimes in Gaza? Hard to believe, but they may have already done so earlier this year when Father Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, the General Assembly’s Nicaraguan president, tried to get the international community to stop the slaughter. Father Miguel has named no names, but in his speech at the end of his one-year term this week, he left little doubt about what happened. He said he had tried to persuade “those who should have been most closely involved” to convene the General Assembly to help the Palestinians under fire. But “all I received was advice to give the process more time… we should do nothing that could endanger the success that was always just beyond our reach.” And he went on to make a very serious accusation against “those who should supposedly have been most interested” yet “denied their support.” He said he hoped “that they were right and that I was wrong. Otherwise, we face an ugly situation of constant complicity with the aggression against the rights of the noble and long-suffering Palestinian people.” If this complicity repeats itself at the Human Rights Council, the Goldstone Report will be sunk. The power of the state system (and a putative statelet) will have trumped the principles of international law and human rights — unless human rights advocates act to make sure the right thing gets done.Nadia Hijab is an independent analyst and a senior fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies

The head of a United Nations commission that charged Israel with committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip during its offensive there earlier last winter wrote Thursday that soldiers and commanders must be held accountable for serious violations during the fighting. In a New York Times op-ed, Richard Goldstone wrote that "Israel must investigate, and Hamas is obliged to do the same. They must examine what happened and appropriately punish any soldier or commander found to have violated the law." Goldstone accused both Israel and Hamas of conducting biased and ineffectual investigations, if at all, saying that "unfortunately, both Israel and Hamas have dismal records of investigating their own forces." Also Thursday, Goldstone denied allegations that his investigative team had set out on a biased mission. "I deny that completely," Goldstone said in remarks broadcast on public radio Thursday, following Israeli accusations. "I was completely independent, nobody dictated any outcome, and the outcome was a result of the independent inquiries that our mission made," he said. Goldstone told interviewers that he stood behind his commission's findings and regretted only Israel's refusal to cooperate with the investigation. "If there is any difference that I would have preferred, [it] would have been that we could have got cooperation from Israel and in particular, I would have liked the Israeli government to assist us and decide what we should investigate because that's what I asked them to do," he said. The nearly 600 page report also accused Palestinian militants of committing war crimes by firing rockets on civilians populations. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Thursday called the Goldstone Commission's conclusion that Israel committed war crimes in the Gaza Strip "pre-determined." "The Goldstone Commission was formed to find Israel of war crimes determined in advance," said Lieberman. "Members of the panel did give the facts a chance to confuse them." "The Goldstone report is seeking to bring the UN back to the dark days in which it decided, under the guidance of states with interests, that Zionism is racism," added Lieberman in a statement sent to journalists. The report, he continued, "has no legal, factual or ethical validity whatsoever." "The state of Israel will continue to defend its citizens from the attacks of terrorists and terrorist organizations, and will continue to defend its soldiers against attacks of hypocrisy and distortion," he added. Military Advocate General Brig. Gen. Avichai Mendelblit on Wednesday denounced the United Nations report as "biased" and said it blatantly overstepped the commission's mandate. The Goldstone report is "biased, extremely radical, and has no basis in reality," Mendelblit said. Israel has meanwhile asked a number of senior members of the Obama administration to assist in curbing the international fallout from the Goldstone Commission report released this week, which accuses Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. The Foreign Ministry decided Wednesday to focus their efforts to combat the report's accusations on the United States, Russia and a few other members of the United Nations Security Council and the Human Rights Council that are involved in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Israeli message is that the Goldstone report threatens those countries because it makes the war on terror very difficult, and therefore efforts must be made to prevent it from being brought before the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised the issue Wednesday with U.S. special Middle East envoy George Mitchell, while Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon discussed it with U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice and other senior officials. Israel has also asked a number of senior members of the Obama administration to assist in curbing the international fallout from the Goldstone Commission report. HAARETZ SPECIAL FEATURE: The Goldstone Commission Report

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday blasted a United Nations probe into Israel's winter offensive against Hamas as nothing but a "kangaroo court," after the investigators accused Israel of committing war crimes in a report. "The Goldstone report is a kangaroo court against Israel, whose consequences harm the struggle of democratic countries against terror," said Netanyahu during closed meetings, in his first response to the report, which was released on Tuesday. He was referring to the report's author, Richard Goldstone, a South African war crimes prosecutor. Earlier Wednesday, Israel's deputy foreign minister said the report, which focuses on Israel's winter offensive against Hamas in the coastal territory, was "dangerous" and legitimized terrorism. "The Goldstone report is a dangerous attempt to harm the principle of self-defense by democratic states and provides legitimacy to terrorism," Danny Ayalon told the heads of the American Jewish Committee during a meeting in New York. The deputy minister urged the Jewish community leaders to work together in order to combat the report. Though the report accuses both Israel and Hamas of carrying out war crimes during the three-week campaign in Gaza, it focuses primarily on Israel's actions during the hostilities. The hostilities erupted on 27 December 2008 and lasted three weeks; Israel says 1,166 Palestinians were killed in the offensive, of whom the majority were militants. Human rights groups say, however, that approximately 1,400 Palestinians were killed, mostly civilians. Thirteen Israelis were killed during the fighting: ten soldiers and three civilians. Israel launched the offensive in response to persistent Palestinian rocket fire against towns and communities in the western Negev. Ayalon added: "The Goldstone Report should be treated like the UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 equating Zionism with racism, thus we must mobilize and act with all force against the report in order to remove it". Peres: Gaza probe makes mockery of history President Shimon Peres issued a similarly scathing response to the report on Wednesday, which he said "makes a mockery of history." "The Goldstone Commission report is a mockery of history," said Peres in reference to Richard Goldstone, the author of the report. "It fails to distinguish between the aggressor and a state exercising its right for self defense." In his statement, Peres added: "The report in practice grants legitimacy to terrorism, premeditated shooting and killing while ignoring the duty and the right of a state to defend itself, something which is explicitly stated in the UN charter." He blamed Hamas for launching the war, and said it also committed other "horrific crimes." "Hamas has employed terrorism for years against Israeli children," he said. "It has detonated explosive devices in the heart of Israeli cities, harmed civilians, launched over 12,000 missiles and mortar shells aimed at innocent civilians with one clear goal in mind - to kill." Peres noted that Israel had evacuated its soldiers and citizens from Gaza, opened the Hamas-ruled territory's crossings and aided in the rehabilitation of the Strip. After the Israeli evacuation in 2005, he said, Gaza was overrun by force by a "murderous, illegitimate terrorist organization," which launched a coup against the Palestinian Authority. "Instead of building Gaza and worrying about the welfare of its residents, Hamas built offensive tunnels against Israel and brutally used Palestinian children and civilians in order to conceal terrorists and hide weapons," Peres said. The president added that criticism against Israel's actions fails to offer effective alternatives that can stifle rocket fire against the country's outlying towns. "It is a fact that the criticism leveled against Israel's actions in response to Hezbollah fire from Lebanon and Hamas fire from Gaza and against the building of the separation fence did not stop the shooting in the south, the shooting in the north, and the planting of explosives in the center," he said. "IDF operations are what brought about economic prosperity in the West Bank, liberated Lebanon from the wrath of Hezbollah, and enabled Gaza residents to return to their daily routines." Barak: UN Gaza report is a 'prize for terror' The findings of the UN report constitute "a prize for terrorism," aides to Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Israel Radio on Wednesday. "The comparison between those who foment terrorism and its victims is unconscionable," an Israeli defense official told Israel Radio. The defense establishment is making efforts to extend legal aid to officers who may face indictment on war crimes charges abroad, Israel Radio reported. Earlier Wednesday, Ayalon said the findings of the UN report were predetermined, Israel Radio reported on Wednesday. Ayalon said that Israel's cooperation with Goldstone would not have altered "one word" of the report. On the contrary, it would have "legitimized" the findings, Ayalon told Israel Radio. Ayalon said the report "is a cynical attempt at role reversal in blaming Israel for war crimes instead of terrorist organizations." He added that Israel would work to enlist the support of Western democracies in a campaign "to prevent turning international law into a circus." The deputy foreign minister, who is currently on a trip to Washington, told Israel Radio that the U.S. and the European Union both opposed the UN commission of inquiry. Ayalon said he planned to meet Wednesday with U.S. ambassador to the UN Susan Rice to discuss ways to minimize the report's damage to Israel before it is submitted to the Security Council for deliberations.

In a damning report on Israel’s conduct during its invasion of the Gaza Strip, a United Nations panel on Tuesday accused its forces of war crimes and of deliberately spreading terror among civilians. Richard Goldstone, a South African jurist, who chaired the four-member panel on behalf of the UN Human Rights Council, said the alleged crimes resulted from military policies adop­ted in the invasion at the turn of the year. He said the findings in the 574-page document “do not amount to second-guessing commanders and soldiers in the heat of battle”. His panel urged action by the UN Security Council that could lead to alleged crimes being referred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The panel’s investigation, with which Israel refused to co-operate, said the military operations in Gaza, aimed at ending Palestinian rocket fire from the territory, were “directed at the people of Gaza as a whole”. The report, handed to Israeli and Palestinian diplomats just half an hour before its release, comes a week before Barack Obama, US president, is expected to chair a meeting between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in New York to try to restart the peace process. Mr Goldstone, who was chief prosecutor in war crime trials involving former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, said: “As a Jew, with a long affiliation with Israel, it’s obviously a disappointment to me – putting it mildly – that Israel has behaved as described in the report.” He said there was no justification in international law for incidents such as an attack on a crowded Gaza mosque, even if Israel had been able to establish its erroneous claim that arms and militants were inside. The Israeli government refused to allow the UN panel to visit Israel or the occupied West Bank after previous negative UN assessments of its conduct in Gaza. The panel visited Gaza and interviewed Israeli witnesses elsewhere. Israel regards the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, which the US attended for the first time on Monday since joining it, as fundamentally anti-Israeli. In a report that also condemns Hamas in Gaza for failing to halt rocket fire and take action against the perpetrators, the Goldstone panel accuses Israel of failing to investigate war crimes against international law in an operation in which 1,400 Palestinians were killed. He urged the UN Security Council “as soon as possible” to establish a committee to determine whether, after a period of six months, Israel had pursued adequate investigations into alleged war crimes. He said Israeli probes so far had relied on the testimony of soldiers rather than victims and had been held in secret. Separately, George Mitchell, US envoy to the Middle East, will continue talks on Wednesday with Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli premier, to try to wrap up a deal to freeze Jewish settlement activity as a step to renewing the Middle East peace process.

UN Fact Finding Mission finds strong evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Gaza conflict; calls for end to impunity

The UN Fact-Finding Mission led by Justice Richard Goldstone on Tuesday released its long-awaited report on the Gaza conflict, in which it concluded there is evidence indicating serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law were committed by Israel during the Gaza conflict, and that Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity.

The report also concludes there is also evidence that Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes, as well as possibly crimes against humanity, in their repeated launching of rockets and mortars into Southern Israel.

The four members of the Mission* were appointed by the President of the Human Rights Council in April with a mandate to “To investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law that might have been committed at any time in the context of the military operations that were conducted in Gaza during the period from 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009, whether before, during or after.”

In compiling the 574- page report, which contains detailed analysis of 36 specific incidents in Gaza, as well as a number of others in the West Bank and Israel, the Mission conducted 188 individual interviews, reviewed more 10,000 pages of documentation, and viewed some 1,200 photographs, including satellite imagery, as well as 30 videos. The mission heard 38 testimonies during two separate public hearings held in Gaza and Geneva, which were webcast in their entirety. The decision to hear participants from Israel and the West Bank in Geneva rather than in situ was taken after Israel denied the Mission access to both locations. Israel also failed to respond to a comprehensive list of questions posed to it by the Mission. Palestinian authorities in both Gaza and the West Bank cooperated with the Mission.

The Mission found that, in the lead up to the Israeli military assault on Gaza, Israel imposed a blockade amounting to collective punishment and carried out a systematic policy of progressive isolation and deprivation of the Gaza Strip. During the Israeli military operation, code-named “Operation Cast Lead,” houses, factories, wells, schools, hospitals, police stations and other public buildings were destroyed. Families are still living amid the rubble of their former homes long after the attacks ended, as reconstruction has been impossible due to the continuing blockade. More than 1,400 people were killed during the military operation.

Significant trauma, both immediate and long-term, has been suffered by the population of Gaza. The Report notes signs of profound depression, insomnia and effects such as bed-wetting among children. The effects on children who witnessed killings and violence, who had thought they were facing death, and who lost family members would be long lasting, the Mission found, noting in its Report that some 30 per cent of children screened at UNRWA schools suffered mental health problems.

The report concludes that the Israeli military operation was directed at the people of Gaza as a whole, in furtherance of an overall and continuing policy aimed at punishing the Gaza population, and in a deliberate policy of disproportionate force aimed at the civilian population. The destruction of food supply installations, water sanitation systems, concrete factories and residential houses was the result of a deliberate and systematic policy which has made the daily process of living, and dignified living, more difficult for the civilian population.

The Report states that Israeli acts that deprive Palestinians in the Gaza Strip of their means of subsistence, employment, housing and water, that deny their freedom of movement and their right to leave and enter their own country, that limit their rights to access a court of law and an effective remedy, could lead a competent court to find that the crime of persecution, a crime against humanity, has been committed.

The report underlines that in most of the incidents investigated by it, and described in the report, loss of life and destruction caused by Israeli forces during the military operation was a result of disrespect for the fundamental principle of “distinction” in international humanitarian law that requires military forces to distinguish between military targets and civilians and civilian objects at all times. The report states that “Taking into account the ability to plan, the means to execute plans with the most developed technology available, and statements by the Israeli military that almost no errors occurred, the Mission finds that the incidents and patterns of events considered in the report are the result of deliberate planning and policy decisions.”

For example, Chapter XI of the report describes a number of specific incidents in which Israeli forces launched “direct attacks against civilians with lethal outcome.” These are, it says, cases in which the facts indicate no justifiable military objective pursued by the attack and concludes they amount to war crimes. The incidents described include: · Attacks in the Samouni neighbourhood, in Zeitoun, south of Gaza City, including the shelling of a house where soldiers had forced Palestinian civilians to assemble; · Seven incidents concerning “the shooting of civilians while they were trying to leave their homes to walk to a safer place, waving white flags and, in some of the cases, following an injunction from the Israeli forces to do so;” · The targeting of a mosque at prayer time, resulting in the death of 15 people.

A number of other incidents the Report concludes may constitute war crimes include a direct and intentional attack on the Al Quds Hospital and an adjacent ambulance depot in Gaza City.

The Report also covers violations arising from Israeli treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank, including excessive force against Palestinian demonstrators, sometimes resulting in deaths, increased closures, restriction of movement and house demolitions. The detention of Palestinian Legislative Council members, the Report says, effectively paralyzed political life in the OPT.

The Mission found that through activities such as the interrogation of political activists and repression of criticism of its military actions, the Israeli Government contributed significantly to a political climate in which dissent was not tolerated.

The Fact-Finding Mission also found that the repeated acts of firing rockets and mortars into Southern Israel by Palestinian armed groups “constitute war crimes and may amount to crimes against humanity,” by failing to distinguish between military targets and the civilian population. “The launching of rockets and mortars which cannot be aimed with sufficient precisions at military targets breaches the fundamental principle of distinction,” the report says. “Where there is no intended military target and the rockets and mortars are launched into civilian areas, they constitute a deliberate attack against the civilian population.”

The Mission concludes that the rocket and mortars attacks “have caused terror in the affected communities of southern Israel,” as well as “loss of life and physical and mental injury to civilians and damage to private houses, religious buildings and property, thereby eroding the economic and cultural life of the affected communities and severely affecting the economic and social rights of the population.”

The Mission urges the Palestinian armed groups holding the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit to release him on humanitarian grounds, and, pending his release, give him the full rights accorded to a prisoner of war under the Geneva Conventions including visits from the International Committee of the Red Cross. The Report also notes serious human rights violations, including arbitrary arrests and extra-judicial executions of Palestinians, by the authorities in Gaza and by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

The prolonged situation of impunity has created a justice crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territory that warrants action, the Report says. The Mission found the Government of Israel had not carried out any credible investigations into alleged violations. It recommended that the UN Security Council require Israel to report to it, within six months, on investigations and prosecutions it should carry out with regard to the violations identified in its Report. The Mission further recommends that the Security Council set up a body of independent experts to report to it on the progress of the Israeli investigations and prosecutions. If the experts’ reports do not indicate within six months that good faith, independent proceedings are taking place, the Security Council should refer the situation in Gaza to the ICC Prosecutor. The Mission recommends that the same independent expert body also report to the Security Council on proceedings undertaken by the relevant Gaza authorities with regard to crimes committed by the Palestinian side. As in the case of Israel, if within six months there are no good faith independent proceedings conforming to international standards in place, the Council should refer the situation to the ICC Prosecutor.

* The members of the Fact Finding Mission are:Justice Richard Goldstone, Head of Mission; former judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa; former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Professor Christine Chinkin, Professor of International Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science; member of the high-level fact-finding mission to Beit Hanoun (2008). Ms. Hina Jilani, Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan; former Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the situation of human rights defenders; member of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur (2004).Colonel Desmond Travers, former Officer in Ireland’s Defence Forces; member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for International Criminal Investigations.

Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (PDF)Executive summary(Advance 1):English - French - Russian - Spanish - Arabic - Chinese(PDF)Conclusions and recommendations (Advance 2): English - French - Russian - Spanish - Arabic - Chinese (PDF)Presentation of the report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict to the Human Rights Council – 29 September 2009 Head of the UN Fact Finding Mission Justice Richard Goldstone presented the report of the Mission to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on 29 September 2009, urging the Council and the international community as a whole to put an end to impunity for violations of international law in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.Full text of statement by Justice Richard Goldstone on behalf of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, delivered to the Human Rights Council, 29 September 2009Press release on presentation of report to the Human Rights Council – EnglishPress release on presentation of report to the Human Rights Council - ArabicPress release on presentation of report to the Human Rights Council – Hebrew Webcasts are available of the Human Rights Council. For the presentation of the report of the Fact Finding Mission and the interactive dialogue following it, see: http://www.un.org/webcast/unhrc/archive.asp?go=090929 Members of the Fact Finding Mission gave a press conference on 29 September 2009 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. For a webcast of the press conference, see: http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/ondemand/pressconference/2009/PressConference_Goldstone_on_GazaConflict.rm (57 minutes) A transcript of the press conference is also available Launch of report UN Fact Finding Mission finds strong evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Gaza conflict; calls for end to impunity (Press Release 15 September 2009) Media summary of Report - EnglishPress Release 15 September 2009 – ArabicMedia summary of Report - ArabicPress Release 15 September 2009 – HebrewMedia summary of Report - HebrewAppointment of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict On 3 April 2009, the President of the Human Rights Council established an international independent Fact Finding Mission with the mandate “to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law that might have been committed at any time in the context of the military operations that were conducted in Gaza during the period from 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009, whether before, during or after.” [See press release of 3 April 2009 and transcript of press briefing] The appointment of the mission followed the adoption on 12 January 2009 of resolution S-9/1 by the United Nations Human Rights Council at the end of its 9th Special Session. Resolution 9/1:Arabic | Chinese | English l French l Russian | SpanishMission Members The Mission is headed by Justice Richard Goldstone, former member of the South African Constitutional Court and former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The three other mission members are: Professor Christine Chinkin, Professor of International Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science, who was a member of the High Level Fact Finding Mission to Beit Hanoun (2008); Ms. Hina Jilani, Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and former Special Representative of the Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders, who was a member of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur (2004); and Colonel Desmond Travers, a former officer in the Irish Armed Forces and member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for International Criminal Investigations (IICI). As is usual practice, the Mission is supported by a Secretariat provided by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Bios for mission membersMission Commences Work The Mission convened for the first time on 4 May in Geneva. During the course of that week, the four Members of the Mission held meetings with a broad cross-section of stakeholders, including UN Member States, non-governmental organizations and United Nations agencies and bodies. The Mission also agreed on its methodology and established its programme of work. The Mission is required to submit its report within three months. [See press release of 8 May 2009] Call for Submissions The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict is pleased to invite all interested persons and organizations to submit relevant information and documentation that will assist in the implementation of the Mission's mandate. Submissions should focus on events and conduct that occurred in the context of the armed conflict that took place between 27 December 2008 and 19 January 2009. The Mission considers that, for the purposes of its mandate, events since June 2008 are particularly relevant to the conflict. More details are available in the Mission’s Call for Submissions. Field Visits In the course of its work, the Mission Members have conducted two visits to Gaza. Despite requests for the cooperation of the Government of Israel, the Mission has been refused access to Israel and the West Bank. The Mission has entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing. The first field visit by the Mission Members was conducted to the Gaza Strip from 1-5 June 2009, during which they held meetings, conducted interviews with victims and witnesses and visited the sites of incidents. [See press release, summary of press conference in Gaza City and statement by the President of the Human Rights Council]. The Members of the Mission were in Gaza again from 26 June to 1 July, during which time they continued their investigations and held the Mission’s public hearings. Mission staff maintained a presence in Gaza until early July. Members of the Mission also traveled to Amman, Jordan, from 1 to 4 July to interview witnesses and meet with people and organizations from Israel and the West Bank. More details are available in the Mission’s Public Advance Notice. Public Hearings As part of its investigation process, the Mission held two sets of public hearings, in Gaza City and in Geneva, during which nearly 40 witnesses, victims and experts gave testimony. The aim of holding the hearings publicly was to give a voice to those who had direct experiences and expertise related to the mandate of the Mission. The public hearings in Gaza included victims and experts from Gaza and took place on Sunday 28 and Monday 29 June 2009. [See press releases of 25 June and 29 June 2009.] Those in Geneva included victims and experts from Israel and the West Bank, as well as military and legal experts, and were held on Monday 6 and Tuesday 7 July, 2009. [See press release of 7 July and summary of 7 July press conference 2009]The public hearings are webcast by the United Nations and can be viewed by visiting the webcast archive. High-resolution photographs of the hearings can be viewed and downloaded from the Mission’s FTP Server:ftp://ftp.ohchr.org username: FFMG2009 password: P433FF (It is necessary to use UPPER CASE characters in the username and password)Transcripts of the Public Hearings

Methodology The Mission worked on the basis of international human rights and humanitarian law and international investigative standards developed by the United Nations. The Mission reviewed reports produced by various organizations and institutions as well as submissions on matters of fact and law relevant to its inquiry. A notice has been issued to call for submissions (see above). The Mission consulted with a wide range of interlocutors including victims and witnesses, Palestinian, Israeli and international NGOs, United Nations and other international organizations, community organizations, human rights defenders, medical and other professionals, legal and military experts, authorities and other sources of reliable information relevant to its mandate, within and outside Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory. The Mission also held public hearings on particular issues of concern related to its mandate. Information-gathering methods included the analysis of video and photographic images, including satellite imagery: Satellite image analysis in support to the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict.Submission of Report The Report of the Mission will be submitted to the Human Rights Council during its 12th Session in September 2009 and presented to the Council on 29 September.

Attacks on human rights groups that probe Israel's Gaza offensive are an insult to reasonable public debate.

The despicable attacks on human rights organisations investigating Israel's Gaza offensive in January confirm Churchill's observation: "A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on." The mission led by the South African judge Richard Goldstone to investigate international human rights and international humanitarian law violations during Israel's offensive, established by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), is the latest victim. His findings are about to be made public. The knives have been out for the mission for months. Now they are being plunged into him and his colleagues. Until the report is out Goldstone can't defend it. So the smears and misrepresentation are left free to pollute public discourse.The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has assiduously responded to a deluge of scurrilous attacks on its credibility and staff, yet totally unfounded allegations – for example, about accepting Saudi government funding and failing to give a critical report to the Israel Defence Forces before releasing it to the public – are constantly being recycled. HRW messed up by failing to see that the nerdy and, to most people, disturbing hobby of its weapons expert Marc Garlasco (he collects German and American second world war memorabilia) could be used to discredit his role as author of highly critical reports of Israel's military conduct in Gaza. But when this story broke last week, the equation implied in some allegations – "Nazi" object-collector plus "Israel-basher" equals "antisemite" – was baseless and defamatory. That he also worked on reports critical of Hamas and Hezbollah was ignored. As another excuse to attack HRW, and deflect attention from its reports' findings, the Garlasco affair was a gift.The human rights world is not beyond reproach. UNHRC has hardly been impartial on Israel. Goldstone accepted his role only after the council president agreed to the alteration of the mission's mandate to cover all parties to the conflict, not just Israel. But mistrust alone does not explain the extraordinary scale of the attacks on human rights organisations, including all Israeli ones, for their reports on Israel.In the 1970s, Jewish groups pressing the Soviets to allow Jews the right to leave the USSR worked with the human rights movement and based their arguments on human rights principles. But now the promoters of the concept of the "new antisemitism" – that Israel is the collective Jew persecuted by the international community – hold the international human rights movement largely responsible for it. Unable to face the fact that occupation and increasingly extreme rightwing governments turned Israel into the neighbourhood bully, and misreading the fallout for Jewish communities as abandonment by progressive forces and governments, many Jewish leaders and opinion-formers have become the human rights movement's fiercest critics. With antisemitism framing this attack, reasoned argument becomes nigh on impossible.Does it then come down to a matter of whose reputation you trust? If so would it be critics of human rights agencies like Alan Dershowitz, the prominent American lawyer who thinks torture could be legalised or Melanie Phillips, a columnist who calls Jewish critics of Israel "Jews for genocide", and Gerald Steinberg, who runs NGO Monitor? Or Richard Goldstone, former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, who is putting his considerable reputation on the line in taking the UNHRC assignment? Frankly, I don't think there is a contest.By declaring the reports of human rights agencies biased, the attack dogs are reinforcing the damage Israel is doing to itself. They put Israel in the company of serial human rights abusers that make the same complaint. And by refusing to respond to letters from HRW, denying the Goldstone mission entry to Israel, rubbishing testimony from Gazans unless it supports Israel's version of the offensive, and allowing the army to investigate itself, Israel merely shows it cannot even tolerate reasonable criticism. This is a sign of weakness, not strength.Goldstone, meanwhile, has attracted extra venom from some who label him a traitorous Jew. Would they say the same about another Jew, René Cassin, one of the prime drafters of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Cassin was deeply influenced by the Holocaust, and the universal declaration was drawn up in direct response to it. It contains the bedrock principles upon which today's human rights agencies base their work. Judge Goldstone is heir to Cassin's legacy.For NGO Monitor, Netanyahu and others attempting to discredit human rights agencies, Palestinian and Israeli human rights are in conflict. For Cassin, human rights were about morality; respect for the inherent dignity of all men and women. His vision, promoted by human rights bodies, offers hope for human progress. We owe it to Palestinian and Israeli alike to listen to Judge Goldstone with open minds – he might just bring us closer to the truth of what happened to human dignity in Gaza in January 2009.Editor's note: This article was amended at 17.00 BST on 15 September to correct the name of NGO Monitor and to delete the reference to Gerald Steinberg's role as advisor to the Lieberman foreign ministry, since this is incorrect.

Both Israel and Palestinian militant groups committed war crimes and acts that were likely crimes against humanity during the fighting in the Gaza Strip earlier this year, a United Nations fact-finding mission concluded Tuesday. In a 547-page report, the mission said both Israeli and Palestinian authorities must engage in "good faith, independent roceedings" to investigate their own sides within six months, or the UN Security Council should refer the case to the International Criminal Court's prosecutor in The Hague. The mission was headed by the former chief prosecutor of the international courts for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, Richard Goldstone, and comprised three other experts in various fields, including international law and weapons. "We live in a world today were there is accountability for war crimes," Goldstone said. "This is a very new situation." Israel refused to cooperate with the mission because it regarded it as having biased instructions from the UN Human Rights Council, which it says has a track record of repeatedly singling out Israel for criticism and turning a blind eye to any Palestinian wrongdoing. The foreign ministry in Jerusalem said it would "read the report carefully," and added that the military had already carried out investigations into over 100 cases of alleged abuse. Goldstone said at a press conference that the Palestinians have not looked into their actions at all, and the report concluded that Israel to date "has not carried out any credible investigations into alleged violations." The former South African justice cited longstanding ties to Israel and his Jewish background, calling allegations he was anti-Israel "ridiculous." He said the parties to the conflict stand to benefit from impartial investigations. While the report - based on nearly 200 interviews and over 20,000 pages of documents and photos - determined that violations of international law had been committed, Goldstone declined to name individuals on either side, saying that was for a prosecutor to decide. Israel, the mission wrote, should pay compensation to Palestinians who suffered losses or damages as a result of any unlawful actions by the military. During the conflict, which started on 27 December 2008 and lasted three weeks, human-rights groups say approximately 1,400 Palestinians were killed, mostly civilians, along with Israeli fatalities of three civilians and 10 soldiers. The mission believed the Israeli military operation was "directed at the people of Gaza as a whole" to "punish" the population. It cited incidents where food productions facilities, drinking water installations and other such sites were attacked, saying these might be "crimes against humanity." The report also condemned the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip, which it deemed "collective punishment" that was part of a "systematic policy" to isolate the coastal territory. Investigations, the report said, led the team to believe human shields were used in certain cases, hospitals were attacked and civilians were shot while carrying white flags. On the other side, Palestinian rocket fire into southern Israel constituted "war crimes and may amount to crimes against humanity" as the militants failed to distinguish between civilians and soldiers, causing "terror." In an aside, the report said Israel failed to protect its Arab citizens against the rocket fire in the same way that it protected its Jewish residents. Israel has said the rocket fire from Gaza into its territory was the reason it launched the military operation and that it was not aimed against the Palestinian population. The report also noted internecine Palestinian violence during the war, including extra-judicial executions and arbitrary arrests. Goldstone called on the militants to release Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured in 2006, and said Israel should cease holding Palestinian political prisoners. The mission would present its report to the UN Human Rights Council later this month in Geneva, where a heated debate is expected. The Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor earlier this month casted doubt as to the neutrality of the Goldstone Commission on Gaza. Goldstone said in July he regards the mandate of the fact-finding mission as requiring an independent investigation into all alleged violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law during the IDF's 22-day offensive. "The testimonies we have heard from victims and witnesses... have been very difficult to hear, but I believe it is important that we listen to these stories," said Goldstone. In response to the report released on Tuesday, Israel's Foreign Ministry said it was "appalled and disappointed," particularly by the comparison of Hamas to Israel. "The UN body has dealt a huge blow to governments seeking to defend their citizens from terror," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor.

UN Gaza report Israel seeking to prevent report from being brought before International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Israel began fighting the diplomatic battle Tuesday to prevent the Goldstone Commission report on Israel's Cast Lead Operation in the Gaza Strip from being brought before the United Nations Security Council and from there to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where charges could be brought against Israeli officials involved in the military campaign. The report, compiled by a commission headed by former war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, accuses both Israel and the Palestinians of actions amounting to war crimes during the December 27 to January 18 battle in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Tuesday night a team lead by Foreign Ministry legal advisor Ehud Keinan, and which included representatives from the Justice Ministry and the military prosecutor's office, delivered a preliminary analysis of the Goldstone Commission report to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avidgor Lieberman. Netanyahu also held consultations Tuesday night on the commission's findings. "The goal is to avoid a slippery slope which would lead Israel to the International Criminal Court in The Hague," a senior Israeli staffer said. On the day after Yom Kippur, the UN Human Rights Council, which appointed Goldstone, will be convening in Geneva for a special session on the report. Foreign Ministry sources said Tuesday that they expect Arab states will begin to prepare a draft resolution which will call for the report to be transferred to the UN Security Council. In a worst-case scenario, the Security Council could decide to transfer the matter to the International Criminal Court. Under such circumstances, the ICC could issue international arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials who were involved in Cast Lead. On the diplomatic front, following the report's release, Netanyahu, Lieberman, President Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Ehud Barak will telephone many of their counterparts around the world. They will stress that the Goldstone report is one-sided, that it rewards terrorism and that it sets a precedent which will make it difficult for any country in the world to defend itself against terror. Israel's diplomatic efforts will focus on the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France - but will also give priority to members of the European Union, because of their influence in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The senior Israeli leaders will ask their counterparts to express disagreement with the report and to oppose any use of it as the basis for anti-Israel resolutions at other international institutions. "It will be a long diplomatic and legal campaign," said a senior Israeli staffer handling the Goldstone report. "We will involve our friends around the world, especially the United States, to prevent Israel's isolation," he said. The report, which is 574 pages long, and which was released Tuesday at a news conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York at which Goldstone participated, contains harsh criticism of Israel of a nature and scope that surprised senior diplomats, including Israelis, who had anticipated condemnation of Israel but were astounded by the sweeping and unrestrained character of the criticism. "Exactly what we feared occurred," Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gabriela Shalev told Haaretz Tuesday. "The mandate of the Goldstone Commission," she said, "was one-sided from the beginning and the initiative to establish the commission came from the UN Human Rights Council, which is known for regularly and routinely condemning Israel." "We anticipated that the contents of the report would be slanted and one-sided, but we didn't imagine that it would be so harsh and blunt," she added. The Foreign Ministry will respond The Israel Defense Forces refused to respond Tuesday to the Goldstone Commission report. The army has decided that the Foreign Ministry will respond to international criticism of the IDF's conduct during Operation Cast Lead. Nonetheless, representatives from the IDF prosecutor's office are participating in the ministry's examination of the report, which details 36 specific incidents in which the army allegedly violated international law. Most of the incidents have already been examined by the IDF - within particular units which took part in the fighting, by the army prosecutor's office, and through the five commissions set up on the instructions of the IDF Chief of Staff. Most of the investigations concluded that IDF forces followed orders and acted in accordance with international law, but it has not yet been determined if the IDF material gathered over the course of these investigations would be used to attempt to refute the Goldstone report. If the UN decides to transfer the Goldstone Commission finding to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, IDF officers could be summoned by the international court and even charged. Such a prospect would also affect their ability to travel abroad. Balad party chairman, Jamal Zahalka, sharply condemned Barak in light of the Goldstone Commission findings. "Ehud Barak [should be sent] to The Hague immediately," he said. "The conclusion from the report," he added, "is that [there should be] an international trial for those responsible for war crimes in Gaza starting with the defense minister, the IDF chief of staff, down to operational commanders, and those who gave them orders and instructions to hit civilian populations and essential infrastructure to make political gains, as the report said." "It is not possible that someone who causes the death of more than 1,000 civilians will not pay the price," Zahalka added. "The report proves the barbarity of the Israeli death machine, which is headed by a classical music aficionado who gives orders to kill civilians in cold blood. Behind war crimes are criminals who must be punished." Hamas Tuesday rejected the Goldstone report, which accused both Israel and Hamas of war crimes during Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip. Hamas spokesmen said the report was not fair. A representative of the extremist organization, Ismail Radwan, told Haaretz Tuesday night that the report was unbalanced and completely misrepresented reality. Radwan said the report should have called unequivocally for an international war crimes trial for senior Israeli officials. He added that Hamas does not accept attempts to downplay the responsibility of the "Zionist entity," as he called Israel, or attempts to accuse Hamas. He claimed that Hamas had no intention of hurting civilians, but said the organization had the right to defend Palestinian civilians and oppose occupation. The group has denied using civilians to fire Qassam rockets or to provide cover from IDF forces. Hamas also adamantly denied allegations by human rights organizations that it had improperly used ambulances as a cover during the operation, or that it deliberately targeted civilians.

Attacked by the Israeli navy: a shelled Palestinian fishing trawler is “completely destroyed”

On August 31st, the Israeli navy attacked a Palestinian fishing trawler with what is reported to have been shelling, causing the boat to light afire. At the time of the attack, the fishermen were in waters near the north of Gaza.

The Palestinian fishermen say that they were within the (arbitrarily-imposed by Israel, solely at Israeli authorities’ whim) new 3 mile fishing limit (although under Oslo, they have the right to venture 20 miles out). Israeli authorities said that the boat had entered Israeli waters.

Another raport quotes Israeli authorities as saying the boat caught fire “most likely because of flammable materials on board.” I was, however, called at 8:47 am by a volunteer in the Emergency Services in Beit Lahia/Jabaliya region, saying that a Palestinian boat had been hit by Israeli naval shelling, was on fire, and that the Israeli naval boat remained in the vicinity. He certainly did not mention the Israeli navy coming to the assistance of the reported 5 or 6 fishermen on board. Later, speaking with a fisherman who had been on another boat in the same area at the time, he mentioned that the Israeli naval boat had first opened fire on a different Palestinian boat. When that boat apparently fled the area, the Israeli naval boat soldiers turned their attention to the boat which was subsequently shelled and burst into flames. By the time my colleague and I were able to start out for the north from Gaza city, the damaged and flaming fishing boat was being helped back to the Gaza port, in a convoy of smaller fishing boats.

Upon arrival at the Gaza port, I saw that the rescue services were already battling the flames, putting them out as the Israeli authorities are reported to have said they had helped to do.

It took between 20 and 30 minutes to smother the flames. The rescuers used a hose which pumped sea water; the pumped worked on a small generator, which had to be lugged from spot to spot depending on where they were fighting fire.

The boat’s fishermen staff, along with fishermen at the port, worked together to halt the fire and stop it from spreading to the fuel tank, a disaster barely missed by the initial Israeli naval shelling.

The heat was intense, the smoke thick and choking. Many of the firefighters wore oxygen masks, but the fishermen, including those who had endured the shelling attack, had no protection but continued to work at putting the flames out.

The boat is completely destroyed, the owner has said. Apparently 18 fishermen on different days work on this boat. That’s 18 breadwinners out of a work which was just helping their families get by.